Lazy Sunday

Not to be confused with Lazy Sundae.

There are some days when I am really excited to be staying indoors and not getting out of my pajamas.  This is especially true today as this is my last "free" day in the foreseeable future.  I have 5 workdays following this, and on Saturday, I have my best friend flying in from England to visit and play with me around California!  I've packed the itinerary to keep us busy and having fun, and especially as I only have 6 days to show her how awesome Monterey and San Francisco are, there are a couple days when we are booked up to our eyeballs!  I won't go too much in to all of our plans here, because there are surprises I don't want to share yet, and things are always subject to change, but after she heads home I will want to reminisce and share our exciting adventures.  :)

So that's the next 11 days.  However, since I'll probably be shunning my husband while my friend is here (I'm glad he's an understanding guy!), he's already itching to do something fun after she leaves.  Since that will coincide with Labor Day weekend anyway, he's also considering us spending some time up in San Francisco with the long weekend.  Wyatt Cenac is performing at Cobb's that weekend, and there's just so much to do in the city anyway.  This is beginning to sound expensive, and we're now looking at 14 days of busy.  That's not even considering that I'll be stumbling back in to (albeit, a shortened) workweek after that.

And now I'm thinking too hard about having to do stuff.  Back to today.

I've gotten halfway through my second sleeve on my cardigan, and I am now running my bread machine for the second time today (the first was to test my reanimated sourdough starter - more on that once I see some results).  I'm thoroughly ignoring any cleaning that needs to be done, except for the laundry, which really washes itself when you think about it.  There's an empty coffee cup in front of me, and a sleepy kitty on my right, who is content with her recent cheese snack (since I was grating cheese anyway for that second loaf of bread).  At some point I'll figure out what to eat for lunch.  Actually, my stomach just told me that I should do that sooner rather than later.

Maybe not as lazy as I originally thought?

Weekend Cake

I baked a cake this weekend!  Admittedly it was from a box, and the frosting was from a can, but still!  Fresh cake!

One time, someone asked me how you're supposed to get the sprinkles on the side of the cake.  I told them that I threw the sprinkles at the sides, and it was bonus points if it bounced off the plate and then stuck on the side.  That person looked at me like I was crazy.  But it works!  And it's FUN!

Yes, I am still 7 years old when it comes to desired cake flavors!

Chocolate Moose Cookies, omnomnomnom

Last night was KNIT NIGHT!  So as I stood in the grocery store, overwhelmed and questioning what to bring, I thought "oh screw it, I'll just go home and bake cookies".  (No, it doesn't make sense to me either.)  I considered calling these "Calamity Cookies", as me trying to complete cookies in a half hour resulted in a whole lot of racket and general destruction in my kitchen, but figured that "Chocolate Moose Cookies" was more descriptive and easier to recall when you file it away, and really any thing I make could have the "calamity" modifier.  Ahem.

Note:  These do not contain moose.  They contain muesli, which I just sound like an idiot when I try to say that so we're substituting with "moose".  Try saying muesli 5 times in a row.  It doesn't even sound like a word any more, does it?!  You'll ask yourself "is muesli a delicious blend of oats, nuts, and dried fruits?  Or is it not even real??!"  Then you'll find something better to do.

OK!  It is tim to be series.  (that would make my husband laugh, but he doesn't read my blog - so that is truly a joke with no audience)



Let's preheat to 375 and get our ingredients working: 



It looks like darkness has befallen my cookie dough, LOL.



1/2 cup softened butter (that's a whole stick)

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla (or 1/2 tsp of double-strength vanilla)

1 egg - removed completely from the shell (terrible Worst Cooks in America joke)

You're going to cream these things together with your mixer.  Then you'll beat in the dry ingredients:

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp baking SODA

1/2 tsp salt

I mixed the dry ingredients together first and added them sloooowly so as not to create a whole wheat flour cloud in my kitchen.

Then turn off your mixer, add:

6 oz chocolate chips
1 cup muesli

It will look like there are too many "additional goods" for the dough, and that's probably true, but you can get it all in there!  Stir in until you have a nice, even mixture.  Now, put your thumb and your pointer finger together like you're making the "ok" sign - the dough that you put on the cookie sheet should be in balls about that size.  Be sure to space them well - those balls will flatten out and spread during baking.  This recipe made approximately 18 cookies so you can do 9 on a cookie sheet twice (I'm not going in to more math than that).

Get your cookies in the oven and bake for 10-13 minutes (at least be sure to check them at 10).  Remove and put on a wire rack to cool.

Wrap them in foil and rush them to Knit Night as quickly as you can, forgetting to pick up your mom in the process.